"We can never safely exceed the actual..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
We can never safely exceed the actual facts in our narratives. Of pure invention, such as some suppose, there is no instance. To write a true work of fiction even is only to take leisure and liberty to describe some things more exactly as they are.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“When I hear a grown man or woman say, "Once I had faith in men, now I have not," I am inclined to ask, "Who are you whom the world has disappointed? Have not you rather disappointed the world?"”
“The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.”
“What the first philosopher taught the last will have to repeat.”
More on Truth
More on Fiction
“Dramatic fiction - William Shakespeare made his biggest mark writing dramatic love stories.”
“I find nothing in fables more astonishing than my experience in every hour. One moment of a man's life is a fact so stupendous as to take the luster out of fiction.”
“There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life, and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction.”